Southern states band together to create first unified Civil Rights Trail

A half-century after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the very states that clung to racial segregation are now coming together to expand people’s knowledge on the Civil Rights Movement.

A dozen Southern tourism departments unveiled a unified website highlighting 110 pivotal landmarks that led to the attainment of civil and human rights for African-Americans. Dubbed the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, the digital map of historic sites stretches from Topeka, Kan. to Wilmington, Del., including 14 states and Washington D.C.

“With this new development, people are going to be able to find out more truth about what happened to African-Americans, and yet how America is growing past that and beginning to acknowledge that we’re all human beings,” King’s niece, Alveda King said.